Reservation and Social Justice

Reservation is for the upliftment of the depressed and continuing it for the lifetime of the nation is not good. People for whom this is meant should recognise the efforts the government is putting in for their upliftment and use this opportunity to bring themselves to the mainstream of Indian society. They should understand that Reservation is not a good thing to happen for the society as it is an indication of social inequality and social injustice which do exist in our social setup. We need to diminish this and bring to our country, our nation a society that is free from inequality, injustice and any form of Reservation; but to make this happen people who fall in the category to be benefited from Reservation should come forward and utilize this opportunity to rise and help themselves and the society as a whole to acquire a socially forward, equal and just status.

Post navigation

23 thoughts on “Reservation and Social Justice”

The reason reservations are not working is because in every caste there is a group which is financially sound and knows how to exploit the benefits of the system. This group is no longer under-priviledged and the students from this group get the same facilities as the other open-group students. Hence the students from this group always top in their reserved list and get admissions. Therefore the real under-priviledged people never get the advantage of reservation policies.Hence there is no point in just increasing the reservation or reducing it. One just need to put additional filter criterias apart from castes. In todays era the financial criterias are more relevant. The people in backward castes with annula family income greater than 1 lakh should be barred from getting any benefits of reservation.

Thanks Shailendra, that is what I wanted to convey. The under-priviledged people should understand the need of the hour and come forward to utilise this opportunity provided by the govt. But the question is who will guide them to achieve this?

Exactly..These people need someone to guide them. the people from the same caste who got the benefits of reservation and are now in better shape should ideally have taken this responsibility. But like the other middle class or rich class indians they are also busy in achieving their personal goals and don’t really care about their social responsibilities.

Yes, we need people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, etc who took pains for the upliftment of society. Young leaders should come forward to help these people attain education that will bring in equality and justice.

Yes immortal, nothing is going to change until and unless we come ahead and make a change. People (read AIIMS RDA) tried very hard to abolish reservation. We all should understand that the benefit of the reservation, like Shailendra has said, should reach to the under-priviledged people who really need to get advantage of these policies that are meant for them. We need true leaders and activists who can reach out to the masses and ask them to use their share of priviledges.

I agree the message needs to be spread. But it has to be the ‘right’ message.

Let me add that I do not support caste-based reservation. There are better classifications available. It’s just that they aren’t equally lucrative for our politicians.

Blogs, articles, emails, sms, petitions, radio shows, street plays, television, fiction, songs, even T-shirts and video games can be designed to make a point! There are a hundered ways, and each of us has the capacity to contribute.

“You cannot move the world unless you learn the importance of your own worth.”~M.K. Gandhi

@GeetanjaliI think you are fighting a wrong battle. To fight a battle, you should first know who your enemies are. We can’t fire a bullet in the dark, it might kill someone innocent.This fight reminds me the agitation of Raj Thakre in Maharashtra. It started because of the Samajwadi party leader making provocative speeches and culminated in hatred against every other north-indian. Raj Thakre became popular, Samajwadi Party became popular, but the permanent damage to social fabric is done.This reservation issue similarly has lot of potential of damaging our social fabric.

And what is a problem? The castes which are getting reservation are proportional (or even less than that) to their population. And everyone has to go through the rigours of education/job etc and have to complete it successfully.So if india does not have these people as a part of population we will not have that much of seats in our colleges/universities or that many jobs in the job market.Therefore I don’t think if any person from backward class gets job/education, it is at the cost of any general category candidate.

And i don’t even believe that the people who score good in any of our exams are better suited for any academic course/job.

@Geet I am not saying whether we are or any one is fighting a battle or not. Rather we don’t even need to fight any battle because this is just an issue of national importance and not that we are on war. Like Shailendra said, it is important to know who our enemies are before we embark on war. I know everyone is fighting against reservation or for it. But why? Everyone is being selfish. Looking at his/her own interest. No body is bothered about how India will progress. The blame should go on the education system prevalent from the times of Raj and the mindset that it has mould of the populace of India. We all want to study hard, become a doctor, engineer, etc and then do a job or so. And because of vastness and population, competition gets stiffer and tougher. For a few seat, thousand and lakhs are aspiring. So, some people see reservation as a step to get one seat for them. And others see it as loss of one seat for them. But we forget that we just need a seat whether through reservation or not. We head no where. We are in a deadlock. And this can only be broken if people become aware of the importance of the growth of India as a whole and not as an individual alone.

“There are better classifications available. It’s just that they aren’t equally lucrative for our politicians”

The basis of reservation cannot be our castes! I fail to see how selfishness comes into the picture in the point I’m trying to make.

Talk to the masses about a logical reservation system, and they would agree. If you talk to them about castes determining poverty, and thus entitlement to a seat, of’ course there will be revolt. (Yes Shailendra, I know you see castes as the basis of all poverty. Forgive me if I choose to differ :P)

“Reservation is for the upliftment of the depressed and continuing it for the lifetime of the nation is not good… Reservation is not a good thing to happen for the society as it is an indication of social inequality and social injustice which do exist in our social setup.”

Palak, I thought we were talking about the same thing with the above lines in your article. Then again, perhaps I was mistaken.

Here’s the crux of the matter as I see it:

Given the disparity in our country, reservation has become necessary. But it cannot be based on something as illogical as the caste of a person.

Of’ course, I cannot force my opinion on you guys. But the education system is already on the mend. It’s high time we open our minds to the fact that just because it is British in origin, it isn’t responsible for all that is wrong in our system.

My hope is that we get to see a day, when reservation of any kind, is just not required anymore.

As per my understanding, the caste based reservation was brought, to bring these sect of people at par with rest of the population and once achieved, gradually remove these reservations.

My view is instead of going for caste based reservation, why not go for reservation to immediate wards of the people who go for intercaste marriages. This will eventually bring different sects of people together and lead to the end of caste based society.(Just a thought…)

@geet I am not in favour of any kind of reservation – neither caste or any other logical concept. I am not pointing anyone to be selfish. I am just saying that if I oppose reservation thinking that it is bad for me then I am selfish here. Same is true if one supports reservation for the same reason. I am not blaming Raj’s education system for all the mess but the mindset the then administrative system has set among people.

@prakirn idea is nice!! But how is it going to make our society an equal, just society?

@geet “Reservation is for the upliftment of the depressed and continuing it for the lifetime of the nation is not good… Reservation is not a good thing to happen for the society as it is an indication of social inequality and social injustice which do exist in our social setup.”

Palak, I thought we were talking about the same thing with the above lines in your article. Then again, perhaps I was mistaken.

@Shailendra: You already know what I think about the issue but since you have asked for it, please avoid any complaints about the length of this comment. All complaints will remain unheard and unacknowledged. 😛

@Palak: I appreciate the-out-of-the-box thinking. Though, when you say “wards of intercaste marriages”, forgive me for pointing out that you’re still basing the system on castes.

My one and only point: I do not understand why our caste has to be the basis of reservation.

Caste may technically still be a part of how we define ourselves, but did it play any role in society till a certain minister brought out a certain commission? No Shailendra, just because he got the support of a certain state, does not make the step acceptable.

For a long time before that, India was breathing in a different environment. Yes, there were caste-based distinction in certain areas, but it never was the huge “issue” it has become today. Instead of punishing those discriminators, we used the same discrimination to divide our higher education system, and hence, the Indian society. For goodness sakes, we have to move out of our feudal thinking first, before we move on to reform!

Alternative options:

1) First, reservation must not be for education beyond the school level. Before your react, please read the following points.

2) The government must begin with an inventory of uneducated children especially between the age groups of 6-14 throughout India. Then ensure free education upto grade 12th. The base of such reservation will be nothing more than the fact that they cannot “afford” an education by themselves. We need to learn from our past. If we try to find reasons for poverty, we must not use it to exploit people and divide India into castes again. Rather, we must try and use the information to avoid it in our future.

3) The above must be achieved in conjunction with this: “Vocational” employment opportunities must be generated. These vocational jobs should not require a degree or diploma. Our motive should be to provide employment to those parents whose children are unable to study due to their financial condition, and the resultant stress at home. When the parents have jobs, and the education is free, no kid would have to work and stress would ideally be at the same level as any other kid in the state/country.

4) Community service must be made a mandate for anyone earning above 3 Lakhs. At least 4 hours a month must be devoted to community service by each such professional. Keep in mind, that in today’s India, a huge portion of urban population earns this amount and more. I don’t think an hour each Sunday is too much to ask. Services may include teaching, computing, professional services (medical, law, art-n-craft) etc. Eventually this too would contribute towards a more educated, overall developed society. Ideally, it should also lead to an equal society, at least to a large extent, if not completely.

4) Indian income tax laws need to be revamped and made a lot more strict. The social security system of the US is a good idea to emmulate. We need to be aware of every rupee spent in the economy in terms of the who, where, when and how. Only then, will we be able to stop people from easily showing their income lesser than what it is and thus, misusing benefits given to the financially challenged. Yes Shailendra, I know this isn’t possible in one day. I never said it is. But before you call me an idealist, understand that ideas are the first step of reform.

5) The education system has already brought about significant changes. It is being further amended as we speak. I know you guys may not agree with it. But it’s a fact. Pick up the latest college prospectus from anywhere in India. There are loads of different courses to suit a myriad of interests and level of understanding. When education is free till 12th, individual interests can be pursued, and conditions at home are similar to all other students, I do not see why the currently underpriveledged lot cannot move into higher education based on their performance in competition with everyone else.

Shailendra would say that these tests are unscientific and not a true judge of calibre. Very true. But please understand, that all students, regardless of their caste, would give the same test, under the same condition. It may not judge merit accurately, but it will be an evaluation on similar terms.

Btw, our testing system is also being modified. Read up on it or, if you prefer, wait for the new curriculum. Either way, the fact remains that the same education system everyone loves to place the blame on, has already started improving.

On the other hand, we, as individuals, remain focused on the past, dividing society in irrelevant categories.

No change can be brought overnight. At least the education system has started on the path of reform. When will the Indian polity follow suit? When will be open our eyes to the individual behind the caste?

Instead of accepting a caste-based reservation, please, I humbly request you, to begin your contribution, in any way you can, towards demanding free education, more vocational employment and compulsory community service. Stop demanding rights for castes. Start demanding rights for people, regardless of their caste.

Once again, it is not possible to bring about a change in one day. But we at least need to move beyond supporting those who blindly categorize people for personal political motives.

I hope I have been able to highlight my views clearly. If you have any doubts or questions, read it again 😀

@geet “@Palak: I appreciate the-out-of-the-box thinking. Though, when you say “wards of intercaste marriages”, forgive me for pointing out that you’re still basing the system on castes.”

@Palak should be @Prakirn.

@geet I completely agree with you about this. I had a discussion on Reservation with my room-mates and I pointed more or less the same points like you did. The point 1 was my starting point too. Will elaborate my points whenever I get time to blog. Was thinking to blog the same thing when I started In continuation, but time constraint stopped me and it became something different. Why are you leaving the discussion? Anyways it was wonderful having you here and discussing an issue which is so critical and milestones of Indian Political System!!

My thoughts are clear on this. It was a caste based politics in India which is a cause of concern. See the electorate is polorized. Every caste has his leader. And how can you ignore that? Take example of UP.Can u be have a party who does not take support from any caste in general and can succeed in elections?Muslims and Thakurs are with Samajwadi Party. Dalits are with Mayawati, Brahmins and Rajputs are with BJP. I such a polorized electorate how would you think of politicians not picking up issues which are strongly realted to castes?Reservation in job and education is such a topic. Let’s talk about the practical things. What happens when you try to abolish reservations? Do you remember violence caused during Mandal Raj?

Do you have a national leader who is respected and trusted by the people from all the castes?

Now as per our constitution, its a fundamental right of every childer between 6-14 to get education. But have we defined education correctly? Does a child going to any damn muncipal school gets correct education? Can you trust governemnt machinery to provide quality education? In fact this machinery is not able to fulfill the fundamental rights. Hence it must cease to exist.Regarding social security, What India needs a social infrastructure. A quality education and quality health services. Unforturnately both of these sectors are run bureaucratically. To fund these bureaucracies with our pocket is a silliness. Already citizens of India are paying large amount of taxes, the highest in the world. India needs a revolution at this moment and not a evolution. Because the evolution is heading in a wrong direction.

renaissance | enlightenment – reawakening – reformation

I HAVE MOVED

I like taking pictures. But I am lazy to click pictures using a DSLR. I own one but use it occasionally. The truth is that I don’t even need one. My iPhone is one of the best point and shoot cameras in the world and I simply love it. With iPhone (or any smart phone for that matter), comes the ease of portability. Portability not only terms of carrying your c […]

Last year I have worked a lot on Distributed Runtime environments specially using Spring XD. Spring XD provides a way to create Streams which can process lot of flowing data in real time. Spring XD internally uses Spring Integration for most of the processing of data. However, it is impossible for any module to handle lots of data in real time. This is handl […]

Migrating SVN Repo to Git June 24, 2016

Recently, I had to move one of my SVN repository (loans-autoloans-duedatechanges) from SVN to Git. As there was no tag or trunk and only branch (it is weird but true) it was fairly simple. Git comes with a great Git-Svn toolkit that you can use. However, there are few caveats and I will tell you how I overcame them. I started by creating a new folder on my m […]

Traceability Matrix - How important is its role in an Agile World April 2, 2016

Requirements traceability is “the ability to describe and follow the life of a requirement, in both a forwards and backwards direction (i.e., from its origins, through its development and specification, to its subsequent deployment and use, and through all periods of on-going refinement and iteration in any of these phases)” [1]. It is primarily useful for v […]

Clojure and Polish Notation March 3, 2016

Clojure is a functional programming language targeting JVM developed by Rich Hickey. It is a dialect of Lisp, which is distinctive with the use of parenthesis and Polish notation (generally referred to as Prefix notation). Clojure follows the same fully-parenthesized Polish prefix notation. It is a beautiful language. However, people get scared when they see […]

Got a new bicycle! February 27, 2016

Today in the morning Ray wanted to get out and play; he misses school when it is an off day for him from school. He wanted us to take him out but 8 am in the morning before you are even awake and in your senses. However, Priti brought out the idea that we may go to Perot Museum to which I readily agreed. At around 11 AM, we left for the Museum and went strai […]

Book Review - Go in Action by Kennedy, Ketelsen and Martin February 10, 2016

Go in Action sets out to do what other books lack. It is kind of an academic introduction to Golang, which is beneficial for developers who have academic interest in the language development and also for those who are looking for a little hand-holding in GoLang. The book will act as a comprehensive language specification for GoLang. The book starts by giving […]

Topeka KS February 9, 2016

Topeka KS was originally published by Palak Mathur at Palak Mathur on February 09, 2016.

Martin Luther King Jr. in India January 18, 2016

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. in India was originally published by Palak Mathur at Palak Mathur on January 18, 2016. […]

We are not makers of History January 18, 2016

We are not makers of history. We are made by history. ~ Martin Luther King Jr. We are not makers of History was originally published by Palak Mathur at Palak Mathur on January 18, 2016.